Taking Back MY Space

            I have no business commenting on the terrible tragedy that took place this morning, but I feel compelled to say something, mainly because I’m so shaken up by it. I am not writing this to trivialize any other horrifying event from the past or even going on right now, but there’s one fact I can’t get over: it was a movie theater.

As a film blogger, I spend a lot of time in movie theaters. I don’t go to that many press screenings, so when I see movies, I see them with a paying audience who have come to escape into something beyond themselves. And this jerk wants to ruin it for all of us.

            I go to about five or six movies a week right now, almost all in theaters. We sometimes like to complain about theaters—bad staff, prices, questionable projection, and of course distracting audience members. But that’s my space. That’s my church, and I’ll take it just the way it is. This guy wants to make movie theaters into something different, and I can’t let him do that.

            Tomorrow, I’m getting up early to see The Dark Knight Rises, and at this moment, I’m kind of terrified to do so. But I know if I don’t go, then this guy wins. As scared as I am, I cannot wait to get in that theater, enjoy the movie, and walk out safely. I don’t want to go through a metal detector or be frisked by police to do so. I don’t want anyone to do that. I want to reclaim MY space.

            I want everyone to go to the movies this weekend. I don’t care what you see; I just want you to go. If you don’t go, that’s fine. But don’t avoid a movie theater because you are scared. I don’t want this awful person to win. I don’t want movie theaters to be a tense, uncomfortable place where I can’t lose myself to a film because I have to think what if it happens here. I want to take back my space. That’s my space. And no one is going to take that away from me.